Karen A
l ID:
6972
Interested In:
For Lease
Land Share
Preferred Acreage: 35-75
Description:
We are a family team (Karen and Kent) ready for the stewardship of a farm, the connection of farm to table, and the fostering of community around a farm’s vision and resources. We are interested in farming on the Olympic Peninsula and would consider land in any of the following counties: Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Thurston, Pierce, King, Snohomish, Skagit, Kitsap.Karen: I grew up in a farming family with summers on my uncle's Texas cattle ranch. My sister runs a cattle ranch with her husband in New Mexico. Our mother raised Nubian goats for milk and crafted dairy products. In college, I studied landscape architecture. I am a long time organic gardener. For the past 3 years I have been developing skills in permaculture cropping, mushroom cultivation, and regenerative grazing with poultry on a micro-farm. My agricultural training includes permaculture design and management classes with Ben Falk; regenerative grazing classes with Greg Judy and Woody Lane; Pastured eggs, poultry, beef and pork with Joel Salatin; Savanna Institute's AgroForestry course; Extension courses in livestock management and breeding with Purdue U, mushroom cultivation courses with Cornell U. As an integrative health care practitioner and educator for the past 30 years, I have skills in building health and addressing disease that apply directly to healthy soil, pest management, plant health and livestock health, using evidence-based integrative therapeutics (mycorrhizae and microbiome optimization, essential oils, herbs, homeopathy) in EU organic farming standards. I run a global education portal for integrative healthcare practitioners (7-10 hrs per week); this assures a working income while farming income comes online gradually across seasons and years.
Kent: I am a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef with 15 years of experience including restaurants and pop ups, fine dining and casual meals, working with locally sourced food, special dietary requirements, farm to table, and charcuterie. Prior to the pandemic, I taught cooking classes at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. I am an effective event organizer and team supervisor. I am certified in food production management and food safety hazard analysis and control. My farm internship was at Delight Flower Farm in Champaign, IL. I am an experienced mushroom cultivator. My interests include agroforestry mushroom cropping as well as community events on the farm including agrotourism, no-tech retreats, and events that honor the land and the turning cycles of the year. Community is created when people share a meal together. It is one of the most primal human experiences, and farming is the basis of every one of those meals!
Together: We are responsible and reliable planners, planters, weeders, feeders, waterers, shepherds, weather watchers, and harvesters. We bring our additional mindful skills as capable organizers, experienced with building an online presence and gathering community in ways that can serve successful stewardship of a farm. Depending on the unique qualities of the land we steward, our vision for farming includes the best matches of these practices: pastured eggs, poultry, livestock (possibly heritage chickens/ducks/geese, rabbits, sheep, pigs and cows); passionate production of healthy compost; regenerative grazing to build the land quality; permaculture cropping with agroforestry; production of wood products and fodder with forest/orchard management; silvopasture with trees that offer their own crop value for mid-term to long term income; row crops with emphasis on perennials; apiary; production of medicinal mushrooms and herbs; consumer direct sales of eggs, meat, produce and added value products such as flavored vinegars, herbs, woven basketry; raw and formed wool and fur. Building community engagement that brings people to the farm and generates additional farm income is an important part of a successful vision.
If your property is laying fallow or is underutilized, or needs reclamation from a nature / wilding state; or has been certified organic, or is interested in becoming a certified organic property, please consider our team. It is important to us to live on the land we steward. We are looking for a long term lease, following an initial trial period to assure alignment of objectives and collaboration. After seeing what your land has to offer, we can share an individualized 1-3-5-10 year farm plan. We are not a match for an ongoing conventional farming operation.
Farm Business Type:
- Row Crop
- Livestock
- Pasture
Intended Farming Practices:
- Sustainable and Organic Practices
- Certified Organic
- Other
